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2.

I am going to offer you a few reflections upon a thing with
which we are all concerned - our English language. It is spoken today
by about half the dwellers on the earth's surface, it contains
some of the greatest literature ever written, it draws from innumerable
sources, and has very stiff standards of its own, and at the same
time it is always changing, for, like all living things, it keeps in
touch with every age. Today both our spoken and written language are
full of new words and idioms. It contains, for example, many new technical
terms from new sciences. It draws a good deal from slang. A
slang phrase is generally a striking metaphor which, if it is really
needed, becomes sooner or later embodied in our ordinary language. We
can never have enough of them if they are good. If English ever stopped
taking in new words, phrases, and metaphors it would soon be a
dead thing. The greatest writer who ever lived was a tremendous innovator.
The young gentlemen from the Universities must have thought
Shakespeare a very vulgar innovator in his language, but what would
the English language be without Shakespeare's colossal novelties?
Another sign of life in our tongue is that in different societies, and
different parts of the earth, while keeping its essential character
it has its own local idioms. For example, Canadian journalism, if I
may be allowed to say so, is good standard English, but, since I came
to this country, I have learned several new uses of words , such as
"slate" and "score" and "probe", all very useful in their way.

But though our language is constantly changing it must
change within fixed limits. We must always keep it a living and organic
thing, with a strong internal structure. It must never be allowed
to become limp and slack. I do not mean that our writing should